Sunday, 17 April 2016

The War That Never Was!

Scilly Isles off the Cornish coast

30 years ago today, the
335 Years’ War between the Netherlands
and the Isles of Scilly ended with a peace treaty being signed. This war had
been long forgotten and many people regarded it as a myth until historical
records were unearthed showing they were technically still at war.

The
origins of the conflict can be found in the mid-17th century with
the Second English Civil War, fought between the Royalists and the
Parliamentarians.

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver
Cromwell had managed to push the Royalists out to the edges of the kingdom,
leaving Cornwall
as the last patriotic stronghold, but in 1648 a further advance sent the Royalist
Navy to retreat out to the Isles of Scilly (off the Cornish coast).

Meanwhile
after being assisted by the English on numerous previous occasions throughout
the Eighty years war, the Netherlands
decided to maintain their alliance by entering the conflict on the side of
Cromwell and the Parliamentarians, after identifying them as the most likely
victors. This act infuriated the Royalists who considered themselves as their long
term allies, causing them to avenge their former
friends by raiding Dutch shipping lanes in the English
Channel.

Admiral Tromp

In 1651 the Dutch, seeking an opportunity to recoup losses
incurred from Royalist raids, sent a fleet of 12 warships to the Isles of
Scilly to demand reparations. After receiving no satisfactory answer from the
Royalists, the Dutch Admiral Maarten Tromp subsequently declared war on the
Isles of Scilly on the 30th March 1651.

3 months later in June 1651, Cromwell’s army forced a
Royalist surrender reverting the Islands back
to Parliamentarian control and subsequently the Dutch fleet sailed home
forgetting to ever declare peace with the Scilly Isles.

Netherlands Embassy

In 1985 a Scillonian historian Roy Duncan wrote to the Dutch
embassy in London
in an attempt to clear up a long talked about myth of a war. Imagine the shock on
both sides when they came across a number of documents suggesting the two were still
technically at war with each other.

Consequently Dutch ambassador Rein Huydecoper was invited to
visit the Islands and
peace was finally declared by the signing of a treaty on 17 April 1986, 335 years after the "hostilities"
began.